Getting familiar with the different areas of SkillCity will help you to feel at home.
'Submit Materials'
On this page you can donate materials to SkillCity. Submissions comprising descriptions of learning activities that develop students' communication skills are preferred. Suitable materials might include a description of a 20-minute groupwork activity that lecturers could try in their classes, for example. Or, you could submit a lesson plan, guidelines for an assignment, or tips on how to split students into teams. For more information on the types of material that are suitable, and your intellectual property rights, please visit the Information and Guidlines for Donors page.
You will need to fill in a short summary page when you submit your materials. Firstly, paste a short title for your submission, one which reflects its' content, i.e. more specific than 'generic skills activity'. You then need to categorise the uses of your submission, ticking more than one box if necessary, and the type of submission, ticking the category most relevant to your type of submission. Both 'uses' and 'type' of submission are used by the search engine when searching for relevant materials. You can then insert the the time needed (if it is an activity), and the number of pages of the submission, if you are submitting a document. You can submit addresses of relevant and useful websites in the 'Links' field.
You will be asked to paste a short summary of the document - and/or an extract -- into a text box. The first 20 words of this summary or extract will appear with the title of your submission in the 'See Materials' list along with short summaries of other submissions; so, you will need to make your summary distinctive and clearly indicative of what you are submitting. Bear in mind that your summary should include keywords as our search engine uses this 'summary card' to sort materials for SkillCity's users. You can list these keywords in the text box but separated from the text by a blank line.
To include a Word document - such as a handout or a lesson plan - go to where the submission form says, 'Attach a file to send .'. You can browse your computer for this file and attach as you would an attachment to an email. An icon indicating that you have submitted a Word document will then be displayed on the 'See Materials' page.
Finally fill in your name, email, department and institution, and your personal url if you have one. Your name and contact details will appear with your submission, and will also be added to the list of contributors to the site in 'About Skillcity'.
Once you have clicked on 'Submit', your material will be displayed on a preview card. From here you can check your submission is correct and then choose to either 'proceed with submission' or 'cancel submission'. Cancelling your submission will return you to the 'submit material' page where you can then edit or cancel your submission as you wish.
'See Materials'
This page displays the submitted materials by title, author, the date submitted, and number of reviews. By clicking on the headings of the table, you can sort the materials by title (alphabetically), author (alphabetically), date submitted (most recent submissions at the top), and number of reviews (least reviews at the top).
Each title is preceded by an icon, which will lead you directly to any submitted Word document.
The title is followed by the 'type' of submission, and a 20 word 'taster' of the document summary. To read the full summary of the document click on the title. This will lead to the 'Document info' page for that document, what we call a 'summary card', where you can find out more about the submission.
The 'review' column shows how many points reviewers have given to each submission. You can reach the reviews for each submission directly from the page by clicking on the word 'view' in the review column.
The 'See Materials' page also allows you to select and display submissions by 'type', for example, you can choose to show only teaching resources, or only bulletin boards etc. You can also perform a 'title quick find' if you are searching for a specific material. This function searches for a keyword in the title only. For more extensive searches you can click on the 'search' page and use the more powerful search function.
'Document Info'
This page gives an overview of the submission so that browsers can further assess whether the material is relevant to their needs. A short summary or extract of the document is displayed, followed by the uses and type of submission, the date submitted, number of pages (if it is a word document), the time needed (if it is an activity), links relevant to the material, and the submitters name and contact details.
Below the summary you can click on 'download this document' to open submitted documents. Most have been submitted as Word documents and will open automatically in this programme. You can also view reviews from other users by clicking directly on the reviews listed below.
After you have perused the material, you can click on the 'review this document' button to add your own insights. Alternatively you can click on the 'comment on review' button below the list of reviews to comment on someone else's review. This may be a useful place for authors to respond to comments.
'Review this document'
When adding a review, you will be asked to assess the material in terms of usefulness, and give any comments, tips, or relevant experiences that you may have had. You will also need to give the material a rating according to its usefulness, and the rating will be displayed on the document information card next to your review. It will also be displayed on the materials list to assist those browsing the materials in selecting what to look at. You will need to submit your name and contact details when adding reviews.
'Comment on review'
This function is for responding to, or commenting on someone else's review. This may be a useful place for authors to respond to reviews. When commenting on someone else's review, the first line should state whose review you are commenting on, and the date submitted.
'Add comment'
This form is used for bulletin board type submissions. You can use this form to add your own refelctions, views or comments on the discussion topic.
'Respond to request'
This form is used for request for information type submissions. You can use this form to add your suggestions, ideas, or references to resources.
'Search Materials'
Simple search
Here, you can search the materials by keyword. If you have more then one keyword, you can choose to search for 'all keywords' to narrow your search, or search for 'any keyword' to broaden your search. You can specify whether the keyword should be in all three, or any one of, the author, title or summary card, by clicking the relevant boxes.
Advanced search
By clicking on ' Show advanced search options', in addition to the above, you can search according to the uses of submission, and the type of submission. You can also choose to search according to recommendation - by the number of reviews and by usefulness rating given by reviewers.
'About SkillCity'
The section where you are now. In this part of the site you can also find out more about the CUTSD CommSkill project, including the history and development of the project, the formation of the CommSkill team, development of the SkillCity website, a list of contributors to the site, and information about how you can help to build the site. There is a list of frequently asked questions, and contact details for the team leader if you wish to register interest in keeping informed of new developments on the site, give comments or feedback, or have further questions about the project.
